Could we turn into Optimus Prime?

How many of you saw the movie Transformers? I remember reading an article (in Popular Science I think) where the question was posed to a scientist of some sort about whether or not the premise of sentient robots was possible. His reply took me off guard. He said not only is it possible but it is probable. Now ever since the invention of computers the idea has been fostering that one day as they get more and more advanced a computer with some form of artificial intelligence will spawn a conscious thought and a new race will be born in which humans will either be wiped out by Terminators or bread as a power source while we continue our lives ignorant of the fact that we are trapped in the Matrix.


What this guy was talking about though was something else entirely, an option that I had never considered before. As our intelligence increases we will soon start reaching a point where our technology will out-pace evolution. No longer will we adhere to the laws of nature and the idea of survival of the fittest will only apply to less intelligent creatures. Already the technological capabilities of man are far out performing the evolutionary abilities. We have developed computers that can think much faster than our feeble brains can, we have developed machines that can lift more, move faster, and reach higher. It has reached a point where the military is experimenting with exoskeletons which will allow soldiers to run faster, carry more equipment, and deliver and absorb more fire power to the point that they will be nearly indestructible against something like the infantryman of today.


With the emergence of nanotechnologies and the advancement of material sciences we now have materials which can shape and repair themselves as needed. A shirt for instance, that is comfortable to wear but turns hard as steel when a bullet comes in contact with it and then can repair the damage that that bullet caused not only to the shirt itself but to the person wearing it. It can contain medicines embedded in the fabrics which can be released to be absorbed through the skin when a small computer in the pocket senses your vitals change.

With this level of sophistication how long will it be until we decided that the human body is to fragile and too inadequate to carry around our superior intellect? How long will it be until we construct robot bodies in which we will transfer our consciousness so that we can perform better? Imagine if instead of having to learn everything when you are born the entire sum of human knowledge and experience can be downloaded. In this future we will not die, and our progress will advance at an exponential rate to the point where all the possibilities of existence are simply entries in a database and the universe itself will be too small to accommodate what we have become… Sad little gods no longer able to learn anything new, experience anything different , be surprised by anything unexpected. The past present and future will merge into a meager unsatisfying existence and we will sit on our thrown as kings of the universe and weep at what we have done.